Ian Woodrow is the leader of the Plant Physiology Group in the School of Botany.  Ian received his Bsc (Hons) from The University of Melbourne.  He then completed a PhD in plant biochemistry at the University of Sheffield (UK) as an 1851 Scholar, and he stayed in Europe for a further three years before returning to Australia as a QEII Fellow at the ANU.  A Harkness Fellowship lured him to the USA for a two-year stay at the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University, which was followed by an academic appointment at the James Cook University.  Ian came to the School of Botany in Melbourne in 1995 as an ARC Senior Research Fellow.

Ian has published widely on plant biochemistry.  His group’s main interest is in the way plants use toxic chemicals to defend themselves against herbivores.  Many of the research findings have commercial applications, and the group has collaborated on these with several companies over the last few years.